Warpcore
by Calorimeter
Summary: Keen seeks Mortimer McMire in the Warpcore to put an end to his plans to destroy the universe. This is a retelling of the final level of the fan-made TUIT series.


I do not own Keen or the TUIT trilogy.

Commander Keen holstered his Neural Stunner and looked at the building in front of him. A gray cylinder accented with red supports towered over him. If dodging shots from cybloogs and Krodacian Overlords in the tunnel behind him did not convince Keen of the identity and importance of the building in front of him, then the giant red "MM" on the building removed all doubts. Yes, this was the warpcore. Mortimer McMire had to be here. Keen took a deep breath, pulled out his stunner, and entered the door.

An initial cautious look showed an empty hallway. Keen gripped his stunner close and walked carefully down the hall. His walk ended on a retractrable floor facing a blank wall under an overhang. He checked his stunner and saw that he was low on charge and could get out only 29 shots. _Not good._ The wall had, upon closer examination, a seam in it, and Keen pushed on it. A panel swung inward, revealing a charging station for stunners. The number under the heading "Charges Supplied" read "24." _I'll take it,_ Keen thought as he plugged in his Neural Stunner.

After the charge completed, he set out to find Mortimer. _This retractable floor must lead somewhere important. Now, where is the switch? _ Keen pogoed, grabbed the edge of the overhang, and pulled himself up. Proceeding at a cautious pace, Keen made his way to the dead end of the hallway, where a single switch hung on the wall. _No creatures? This is spooky, _he thought as he pushed the switch. He jogged to the end of the hall and looked down a long shaft that the retractable floor had covered. _Here it goes._

He dropped to another retractable floor, pulled himself to his feet, and froze as the sound of muttering reached him. He crept along another hall and slowed his approach as the floor sloped down. A box-shaped contraption stood on the side of the hallway; there was a globe on top filled with a bright yellowish green liquid. _Vitalin._ Someone stood in the machine with tubing attached to him, someone with a red shirt and black helmet. Immediately understanding what was happening, Keen shot the globe, and green liquid splashed on the floor.

The figure lunged out and shouted, "I wasn't finished, but you'll be, Commander Clown!" It pulled out a hyperpistol and fired. Keen had, however, retreated up the slope, so he was unharmed. _How much Vitalin did Mortimer take in? How will it affect him?_ Despite not feeling magnanimous, he decided to try the diplomatic approach.

"McMire, let's talk. Why did you make your base of operations so visible? Why did you not activate the wormhole system yet?" he asked while slowly approaching a fuming Mortimer.

"I will show you one last time that I am superior, Blaze. You've managed to make it past all my guardian areas. Krodacian Overlords and Cybloogs are nothing to you. Well, even with a less-than-maximum dosage of Vitalin, no thanks to you, I will be even more formidable than my servants. I will make you the prey rather than hunter, but I will prolong your agony. You have no way of winning. Your death will merely be an added bonus to the destruction of lesser life forms," Mortimer replied, a sinister smile gracing his face.

While Mortimer was speaking, Keen slowly approached. He could tell Mortimer was feeling threatened and agitated. He also noticed a switch on the wall, the handprint glowing against the black background. _Has he forgotten just how smart I am? _ He waited while Mortimer finished. There was a pregnant pause between the two while they glared daggers at each other. Keen momentarily broke the tension by slamming the switch.

"Challenge accepted," he said with a steely tone before turning and sprinting back up the hall. As he had thought, the floor had retracted, so he plunged to another level lower, not bothering to check back on Mortimer. He looked to his left and saw a door with a red gem holder. A bright green column to his right caught his attention, so he jogged toward it. Sure enough, the red key gem hovered behind it. Keen stepped back and fired his stunner at it, but nothing happened. A menacing laugh from behind him made him turn.

"Those energy cores are far stronger than your puny stunner. Face it; you lose, Mister Three One Four," Mortimer said while pulling out his blaster. Keen dodged the shot, but it hit the core. Keen thought he detected a slight expression of anger cross Mortimer's face, and then he remembered Princess Lindsay's words: "You can't defeat Mortimer with your stunner alone." _Is he really so dumb as to make his gun capable of destroying these cores? This might work._ Keen took the opportunity to fire off three quick shots. Mortimer seemed unaffected physically but grew angrier.

Keen jumped over his next shot, and the core dissolved in a cloud of green. Mortimer growled and charged at him. Keen sidestepped the attack and pogoed toward the door, where he waited for Mortimer, who soon returned. Keen pogoed over him and ran for the gem. After he got it, he barely had time to flatten himself against a wall as another shot from Mortimer's Brain Blaster left a charred hole in another wall. Keen sent off another shot as he hurried toward the door and inserted the gem. The door opened to another hall, and Keen was off again, with Mortimer in hot pursuit.

He had to jump over a sloped group of spinning electrical sentry diodes, and it was a close call. Mortimer, on the other hand, had no problem clearing it. _That Vitalin…_ A yellow gem holder sat on the floor in front of another door. Keen looked up and saw a large blue pipe. He used his pogo stick and reached safety shortly before Mortimer ran into the area. He heard a shot, looked up, and saw a gun firing toward three poles. He saw Mortimer below him, and he jumped to a nearby pole and inched up it.

He saw the yellow gem glittering in a dark alcove and crossed the gap using all three poles to get it, being careful not to get shot. He knelt on the platform to watch Mortimer. As soon as Mortimer disappeared under the platform, Keen pulled out his pogo stick, and, one large leap later, had landed and opened the door.

After a brief constriction, the passage opened to another tall area that ended at a door with a blue gem holder. A groove in the wall contained a track for an elevator, but the platform remained at the top. Keen turned and saw another green energy core and, behind it, a switch.

Mortimer, despite being pumped up with Vitalin, ran more slowly than Keen, so he did not arrive until Keen finished his cursory inspection. Keen instinctively ran toward the core. Mortimer fingered his Brain Blaster and smirked before pulling the trigger. Keen rolled down and to the side, and the green of the core faded as it absorbed the shot. The floor shook a little.

"How? HOW? I'm the one with Vitalin, and yet you dodge my shots. No matter, I'm still smarter and will use you as an example to the other puny life forms," Mortimer stated flatly. Keen merely smirked, leapt at him, and wrestled the gun from him. Moments later, the second core exploded, and Keen pulled out his pogo stick. Just as he landed and hit the switch, Mortimer landed on him and yanked his gun back. Keen gored him in the stomach with the bottom of his pogo stick, momentarily leaving him open to attack. As Keen got up and hurried away, he shot in Mortimer's direction five times.

As Keen reached the door, the blue platform neared the bottom of its descent. Wasting no time, he jumped on and rode to the top. He jumped to a platform to his right. As he hurried along the hall, a guard gun nearly shot him, and he berated himself for his carelessness. A hop, skip, and a pogo later, he was on his way back with the blue gem. As he rode down the elevator, he saw Mortimer fuming by the remains of the energy core.

As quietly as possible, Keen jumped to the ground and opened the door. The sound of the opening door alerted Mortimer, and the chase began anew. The hallway constricted again, and Keen fired behind him a few times, Mortimer's grunts showing that he had hit his target. A sudden drop off loomed before Keen, and, without thinking, he jumped as another blast from Mortimer screamed over his head. He fell to another platform and there found a charging station for his stunner. As his stunner was charging, Mortimer fell to a lower level, apparently unaware that Keen had stopped for a breather.

Keen cautiously looked over the edge and saw Mortimer pacing. He used the opportunity to get off several shots, including some as he fell after jumping off the ledge. He landed on Mortimer, knocked the wind out of him, and used the opportunity to shoot him some more, stopping only when Mortimer reached for his blaster. Mortimer saw this and smirked as he got up. Keen ran up a steep ramp, jumping when a shot destroyed the surface where he had been only seconds earlier. He shot behind himself as he ran into another area.

Massive blue tubes mounted on the wall served as the pathway. Keen froze briefly when the tube shook as Mortimer hopped on it. He hopped over a shot and returned with a brief salvo which knocked Mortimer to his knees for a short time. _A-ha! There's the limit! _He thought excitedly as he jumped to the actual floor. He ran up the ramp and stopped to catch his breath. He flinched as a shot flew by his left side and smiled when he noticed that it had buried itself in an energy core, which now glowed a dull, sickly green. He turned and faced Mortimer, whose eyes were dilated and quivering in rage.

Against his better judgment, Keen said, "Vitalin affects the mind as well the body, does it not, McMire? Because that's the only reason you're behaving like you are now, right?" Mortimer growled and shot a quick triple blast that again only narrowly missed Keen and growled again as he realized Keen had baited him into destroying the third core. Tremors shook the building as the remaining core tried to stabilize everything.

"I can still do it with one core, Four, which will make your defeat that much more satisfying" Mortimer sneered as Keen hightailed it away. _Yeah, right. _More blue pipes stretched before him, a path that he was sure would lead to the last core. He jumped over another line of sentry diodes onto a slope. A second set of feet landed soon after his, so he continued his mad sprint up another hill. At the top, he saw another green glow. _How am I going to get Mortimer to destroy this? Maybe _I_ can stun_ _him and take-_ a shot interrupted his thoughts, and he gave a yelp.

"So even Commander Clown gets scared by a warning shot. I'll replay that moment for everyone just after you die. It would be a fitting sendoff," Mortimer said with a crazy light in his eyes as he jumped up the hill. Keen backed up, his mind racing. _ He seems even less stable than before. Maybe this won't be as difficult as I thought._ Mortimer reached the top of the hill just as Keen backed up to the energy core.

Mortimer looked even more crazed. Still, Keen couldn't help pushing buttons.

"I guess paranoid people shouldn't take megadoses of Vitalin. They have a funny effect on the limbic system. Your poor amygdyla must be working overtime, McMire." That seemed to be the last straw for Mortimer.

"I am NOT paranoid! You are a serious threat to my dominion and must be the first to go, Clown!" In a calmer tone, he added, "Your affairs are in order, I hope," as he pulled out his blaster. Keen hit the depression in the floor hard and heard the last core burst from the rapid fire. The tremors increased many fold, but Keen struggled to his feet and ran through the still-smoking opening. _Is that caterwauling Mortimer?_ A switch glowed at the far end of a retractable floor. He heard pounding behind him. He barely turned before firing off a shot. Mortimer sank down.

A fraction of a second after pressing the switch, Keen felt himself falling into an abyss. He grabbed the edge of a ledge and pulled himself up. Mortimer saw this and tried to make the leap, and he scarcely grabbed the edge of the ledge. The Vitalin appeared to have diminished greatly in its effects. Mortimer was bruised and looked exhausted, but he was still angry.

"You fool! Look what you've done!"

"I? A fool? This is the end of your Toast-Star, Mortimer, and the end of your reign of terror throughout the universe."

"This battle isn't over, 314. I won't rest until you and all the other pathetic life forms in the universe are erased from existence!"

For some reason, Keen was moved, and he decided to try to talk to Mortimer one last time. "Why? Why should everything be destroyed? You're the smartest being the universe has ever known. Think how much good you could have done with your intelligence!"

"Because they don't deserve it! They're all idiots and incapable of appreciating such genius! And no matter the IQ score, you're just as stupid as the rest of them!"

"That's not true. The Vorticons, Shikadi, and Krodacians, they all saw in you a supreme intelligence and a leader. Face justice, Mortimer, and then show the world the good you're capable of."

Keen reached out his hand. Mortimer seemed perplexed, but then the familiar glint appeared in his eyes as a smirk spread across his face.

"Never with your help. It's the end for you, Commander Keen!" With that, Mortimer pushed off the ledge and pulled out his hyper pistol. Keen dodged the shots and fell down on the platform. He got up and looked over the edge but saw nothing of Mortimer. A severe bout of shaking rattled him from his ruminations. He hurried to a transporter booth and got out of there and back to the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket.

His friends rejoiced when they heard the threat of Mortimer was gone and surprised that Keen just might have pricked Mortimer's conscience for a brief time. Princess Lindsey was so happy she gave Keen a kiss on the cheek, leaving him blushing.

"Mission accomplished," Keen stated as he saw the Warpcore Tower crumble on the screen. Turning toward his friends, he said, "I'll bring you back home, but I have to be fast. I arrived to dinner late a lot recently, and I can't bear the thought of another double helping of broccoli."

Thanks for stopping by to read this. I have tried to adhere as much to the game as possible, but I have added elements that I feel would make it more realistic. I always wondered why Mortimer would have his headquarters in such a prominent spot and then wouldn't just activate the wormhole system. I thought he had to indulge his flair for the dramatic, especially to his arch rival.


End file.
